


The Creation of the Seraphina Universe

by prin_zyth



Category: Seraphina - Rachel Hartman
Genre: Gen, Homework, creation story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 07:19:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20738384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prin_zyth/pseuds/prin_zyth
Summary: As a project for my Comparative Mythology class, I had to write a creation myth for a fictional universe using common themes from actual creation myths. Most of this doesn't make sense for theSeraphinauniverse since I had to include a bunch of things that aren't really canon-compliant with the Faith of Allsaints, but I had fun writing something that is very clearly church-sponsored anti-dragon propaganda! So anyway, enjoy.





	The Creation of the Seraphina Universe

At first, the world was only water—swirling and chaotic, without a source or an end. The water held no life, but underneath it, there was land, waiting to be formed into something good and useful. The rapids were crowned by the vaulting dome of the sky, which belonged to the sky deity, Hartman. Hartman had control of the sky, and she controlled its lights, watching as the water underneath her became blue and reflective during the day and dark during the night, with only pinpricks of light from the stars and the moon illuminating its surface. This was the world, and it was beautiful to her.

But soon, she became lonely, for although she understood everything around her, she did not know how she had come to exist within it, or why she was alone here. She knew that she was great for she controlled everything, but there was no one to recognize her greatness. Hartman desired that a new form of life be created that would understand the beauty of her world and cherish it.

She started by filling the waters beneath her with all forms of life. She created plants first, but soon she saw that they were not aware of her or the world. And so she created fish to feed upon the plants and exist in the water. But they, too, were unable to grasp her greatness. In turn, she made the creatures of the sea larger and more complex, and yet they still were unable to recognize her or give her the worship she deserved.

At the bottom of the ocean, Hartman could see the soil from which the plants grew, and she saw that it was good, and that it could harbor new forms of life. And so she brought the soil to the surface, and she called it “earth.” And she saw that it was so beautiful and had so much potential that she named the world “Earth” in its honor. And on this earth, she put plants like those from the ocean, and animals, unlike those from the ocean, for these animals needed air, not water, to live.

Hartman loved the creatures of the land, but they, too, did not recognize her greatness. She built them homes—created trees and fields and mountains—hoping that this would enlighten them, but she did not succeed.

Finally, she decided to try something else. From the swirling waters of the ocean, she formed an egg. It was as wide as the largest mountain is high, and twice as tall, and although she could not look inside it, she knew that it contained all the holy ingredients from the creation of life—life with intelligence comparable, if not equal, to hers. After twelve days and twelve nights, the egg hatched, and it released into the world a thousand of a new creature: dragon; and a thousand of a species built to serve the dragons: quigutl. And Hartman loved the dragons and their cousins, the quigutl, for they spoke to her and acknowledged her existence and the role she’d played in their creation.

But the dragons did not worship Hartman, for they were soulless and selfish. Instead, they fought each other and killed each other for gold and power, seeking to better themselves, rather than to honor their creator. This made Hartman sad, and she knew that she had erred in making the dragons. But still, they were her children, and she loved them. So rather than changing or destroying dragonkind, Hartman decided to create a new type of life, one that was morally superior to the dragons.

From the abandoned shell of the egg from which the dragons had come forth, Hartman formed two humans, a woman and a man. And they were grateful to Hartman, and they worshipped her and thanked her for their lives. And the humans spread and formed towns and cities, where they taught other humans to be thankful to Hartman. And Hartman smiled upon her rightful children, for she loved them, and they loved her.

The dragons saw this, and their shriveled, dark, draconian hearts became jealous—for they were evil, and the humans were good, and evil always seeks to destroy good; that is its nature. They vowed to destroy the humans and declared war on them, swearing to kill every last one.

Hartman wanted to stop the dragons, but as they were her children, she could not harm them. But to help the humans in their war, she sent them five hundred saints. These saints looked human, but they each were built from a piece of Hartman herself, and so they were powerful and wise.

The saints shifted the tide of the humans’ war with the dragons. Where they had once suffered terrible, bloody defeats came draws and even victories. They taught humans an art for fighting the dragons, drachomachia, and the knights who learned it shared it with others, so that eventually, all of humanity was strong. The dragons were forced to retreat, temporarily, into the mountains where they lived.

Each saint had a role to play in the humans’ victories. St. Ogdo taught and practiced the dragon-feared drachomachia; St. Abaster smote his enemies; St. Vitt shared the word of Hartman with the people and told them about their holy duty to serve her. The saints knew their place and used their power to advance the will of Hartman. One saint, however, saw that she was strong, and she lost control of herself, giving too much to the humans and forever bringing sin into the world.

St. Yirtrudis was made from the oldest part of Hartman, the part of her that contained the most remnants from that chaotic time before the world was formed. Yirtrudis was a shapeshifter and a heretic, and she took the form of a serpent, slithering among the humans and spreading her wicked gospel. She taught the humans about another side to their nature, one not so pure as the one that Hartman valued and had chosen to give them. She taught them about hatred, so that they could fight the dragons with passion, and skepticism, so that they could ignore the dragons’ heretical philosophies. At first, Hartman ignored this and allowed Yirtrudis to do her work, for she saw that this was helping the humans in their war. But soon, the humans turned their newfound hatred upon each other, and they became skeptical of Hartman’s teachings, repeating Yirtrudis’s cry, “No Heaven but this,” and insisting that no saint or deity was more worthy or important than they were.

This angered Hartman, and with pain in her heart, for she hated to harm any of her children, she ordered St. Abaster to smite his heretic sister, Yirtrudis. But even after she was killed, many of her teachings remained. St. Ogdo and St. Vitt aided their brother in destroying as many as they could, but even saints could not get rid of it all, and alas, the humans retained their hatred and skepticism, among other forms of new sin that Yirtrudis had taught them.

Some dragons, seeing that humans were good and pure, sought to be like them by modifying themselves and their forms, becoming a new shape and gaining new emotions and goodness. Hartman smiled upon her children who did this, for although dragons have no souls and may not enter Heaven, by rejecting the ways of their sinful people and seeking to be like Hartman’s favored children, humanity, they could escape the fiery pits of the Infernum, where she was forced, as sad as it made her, to send all creatures that did not embrace the Faith of Allsaints. However, other dragons began to use this form to trick humans into believing that they were similarly worthy of Hartman’s love. They have not seen the error in their ways or converted to the Faith of Allsaints, and thus, they shall burn in the Infernum for all eternity.

Editor’s note:

As of the most recent edition of this text, the war between our Hartman-beloved people and the evil, draconian shapeshifters is paused. Our leader, the magnificent Queen Lavonda, has been tricked into making a treaty with the dragon Ardmagar Comonot. However, we must not forget that it is our holy duty to purge the Southlands, and the Earth, of these hateful beasts, no matter what our splendid, but gullible, queen might believe. Forty years of peace will never make up for the atrocities committed against us by the foul worms and their filthy quig slaves.


End file.
